So the BTN and Comcast are at an impasse and there is a real possibility that they won't renew their agreement when the current one expires on 8/31/18. This also includes FS1. Which of course means if you have Comcast you won't be able to see PSU play such titans as Kent State and Illinois on a Friday night. Earlier this year Comcast had already dropped the BTN in states where there was not a BIG school.

The whole TV landscape is changing dramatically with so much cord cutting. I think we're going to see a lot more of this kind of thing. The days of everybody who pays a cable bill subsidizing channels like ESPN or the BTN are coming to a close. It's just not affordable. Yes, sports fans will pay, but only up to a point. I don't know exactly what that price point would be for me, but there is one. I think it's going to have implications long-term for sports salaries as well because the TV money just wont' be the same.

Several years ago, I placed a $$$ cap on what I would pay for my internet and TV service through Verizon FIOS. It wasn't so much that I couldn't afford it, it was more a matter of principle. I grew weary of the annual gouging. Now, whenever the price goes up, I drop something from my service. I've dropped most of the movie channels at this point. I still have the sports package, but I suspect that will probably end up on the chopping block some day.

The cable companies take the blame, but the content providers are the ones driving the prices up. The classic example is when Yes! Insisted they be carried on basic cable but were paid a per subscriber premium. Cablevision said "screw that" and refused to play ball. Yes! was dropped from millions of NJ Yankees fans, who screamed bloody murder until the State legislature strong armed Cablevision into cutting a deal that ended up costing money to all their customers in NJ.

At some point I will cut the cord on regular tv and just go with an Internet service, but I'm not convinced that is really cheaper.

I remember about 20 years ago when my mother (God rest her soul) got her first laptop computer and signed into AOL. She was looking at available services and commented how this was the beginning of nickel and diming us to death. Well, maybe not the beginning, but a big push down the slippery slope, for sure. Fast forward to modern times and I think she was correct.

We had cable when I was a kid, but nothing like what I pay for now both in cost and programming. I had DISH for many years, movies and sports (to get the BTN out of market) with Verizon DSL and phones. We needed faster and better (more reliable) internet so my wife could teach via the interwebs so we switched to COX. Changing packages and cell phones reduced out bill a good bit, but I haven't really looked into just getting COX for internet as I presume the fees for all the live tv would end up the same but with many other bills that I am apt to mess up somehow.

Having just applied for a loan to get my son through his first year of college, I might have to look at different options soon...

The cable companies take the blame, but the content providers are the ones driving the prices up.

Yes, but that's universal. A thousand years ago when I worked in a supermarket, some natural disaster devastated the sugar cane crops and wholesalers doubled the price of a 5-lb bag of sugar over night. It wasn't the fault of the supermarket, but the store manager still got an earful from the customers.

Whenever I call FIOS to drop something, they're quick to point that the price increase is not their fault. I just tell them fine, you're absolved ... just cut it from my service and we'll part friends.

So, I read an article yesterday about "mother shaming" which is basically some random person calling a woman's actions regarding her kids into public doubt. I suppose there are other forms of this "shaming" phenomenon (fat, clothing choice, whatever), where people feel it is not just their right, but their duty to call others out. I may have mentioned the situation my son had were a woman called his wife out because their baby pulled her socks off on a very cold day while being carried into Walmart. Now that we have the mandatory reporting at OSU discussion going on, I figured I would see what you all thought about this. Has this behavior been going on forever and most of us didn't care or know because we didn't have social media and all that to keep us updated? Or, is it just that people have thinner skin and get offended easier these days?

For the record, the article I saw had a woman get arrested for leaving her child (not an infant or toddler) in the car for a few minutes while she ran into the convenience store. It was a mild day so extreme heat/cold was not a concern and the child was content to stay and play his Gameboy or whatever it was.

I'm not sure calling the cops on someone who locks a toddler in a car in a parking lot is exactly "shaming". It's not safe to do that. That the woman was arrested tells me something about the incident. I'd need more details to really judge if this was reaosnable or not, but sometimes calling the police is warranted.

As for people getting called out for calling the cops, I suspect that's been going on for years. Now it's just getting attention. And, not all the attention is good in my opinion. If you see a stranger knocking on doors in your neighborhood, that could be a way of them assessing who is home and what houses can be robbed during the day. If you see someone doing that, do you call the cops just to make sure? You're not supposed to solicit door-to-door where I live but people do it. Usually they do it in the evening. if you see someone doing it midday, do you call the cops? What if it's a white neighborhood and the person is black. Are you a racist for calling the cops? What if the person is legitimate (even if they shouldn't be going door to door)? Are you a racist then?

Some of the things people have called the police about are absolutly worthy of the backlash they have received. I just worry it's going to have a chilling effect on calling the cops at all.

It is possible that I am confusing a couple f the situations from the article, so I am not 100% sure she was arrested. I am pretty sure the police were called. I was left in the car for a few minutes as a child on more than a few occasions. Granted, times were different back then and we didn't live in fear of damn near everything. (Had someone abducted me, I am sure they would have returned me pretty quick anyway)

Your last sentence is important. I don't know what impact it will have, if any. Some people have no problem calling the cops as we see multiple reports of the police showing up thinking a house is being robbed only to find the homeowner inside. Maybe the neighbors are fearful or racists, maybe they are just ignorant of their own neighbors?

We now have people calling 911 at McDonald's drive-thru because their order is wrong. If I did that I be a frequent flier with 911 each time an order was wrong/incomplete.

Most sensible people do not verbally accost people on the street about imagined offenses/wrongdoing/etc. A few do and more so now than in the past. Some are emboldened for some reason to strike out as judge of the world.

It makes for an intervention where none was required. Like a baby pulling socks off is a new crime. Wow, guilty as charged, lock us up.

So I got that going for me...which is nice.It's a cross between Kentucky Bluegrass, Featherbed Bent and Northern California Sensimilla so you can play 36 holes on it,take it home at night and get stoned to the begesses belt